• Both players on target in 4-1 win for La Liga leaders

• Nkunku strikes as Milan sink Lecce in Coppa Italia

Real Madrid maintained their flawless start to the Spanish league season with a swashbuckling 4-1 victory at Levante on Tuesday.

Vinícius Júnior orchestrated the visitors’ first-half display before Kylian Mbappe’s second-half double, including a penalty, sealed a comprehensive win.

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Domestic game risks being ripped from its fabric as La Liga and Serie A seek approval from Uefa to play fixtures abroad

It has been called the biggest existential threat to European football since the ill-fated Super League. Now it is on the verge of becoming reality and the implications will be far reaching if, as widely expected, La Liga and Serie A are given permission in the coming weeks to host domestic games abroad. The sport risks being ripped from its fabric should Barcelona and Villarreal be allowed to break the mould and stage a top-flight fixture in Miami this December.

The topic has dominated discussion in football’s corridors of power recently and, at the heart of a complex and deeply emotive problem, the immediate equation is simple. If Uefa’s executive committee agrees to the plans when it convenes in Tirana on Thursday the final say will be down to Fifa, probably at a meeting of its council on 2 October. The global governing body would be unlikely to put up opposition and the question, at that point, will be just how earth-shattering a precedent has been set.

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• Would be the first European league game in the US

• Proposal moves to Uefa, Concacaf, Fifa and US Soccer

Barcelona and Villarreal could be set to contest the first European league match held in the United States after the Spanish Football Association (RFEF) approved a La Liga plan to hold one of the teams’ games this season in Miami, Florida.

La Liga proposed the measure to the RFEF on Monday. With the RFEF’s approval, the matter now requires the approval of Fifa, Uefa, and the host federation and confederation (US Soccer and Concacaf, respectively).

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• Midfielder signs in week when he appeared in court

• Club says it ‘firmly condemns … gender-based violence’

Villarreal have confirmed the signing of Thomas Partey on a free transfer after the expiry of his contract with Arsenal. The move was announced two days after the 32-year-old appeared in court charged with six sexual offences.

Partey was bailed to appear at the Old Bailey for trial later this year, charged with five counts of rape relating to two women and a charge of sexual assault against a third woman. The alleged offences are said to have taken place in 2021 and 2022 when Partey was playing for Arsenal.

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The £64m man makes his home debut in friendly as Mikel Arteta talks about his ambitions for new season

New season, same old Arsenal? On an evening when Viktor Gyökeres was meant to announce himself as the solution to all of Mikel Arteta’s problems, instead it was a figure from Arsenal’s past who stole the show.

At £72m – £8m more than they may end up paying for the Sweden striker – Nicolas Pépé was an expensive Arsenal signing, a few months before Arteta replaced Unai Emery in 2019. Most of the fans who packed out the Emirates Stadium for this pre-season friendly will not have many fond memories of the Ivory Coast international’s spell in north London, but he clearly had a point to prove here.

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• Former Arsenal midfielder has denied rape charges

• Partey has agreed contract and taken medical

The former Arsenal midfielder Thomas Partey is poised to join Villarreal on a free transfer this week.

Partey is due to appear at Westminster magistrates court on Tuesday after being charged with five counts of rape and one count of sexual assault last month, a few days after he left Arsenal having failed to agree a new deal. He has denied all the charges.

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